Vining for Attention

NORTH AMERICA IS HOME TO A HOST OF CLIMBERS AND RAMBLERS THAT MERIT SPACE IN GARDENS 

- Max Eber

Whether scrambling up a wall, entwining a fence or draping a pergola with shade, climbing plants contribute both style and function in the garden. But vines must be selected carefully, as many are naturally aggressive. Choices popular in the past have created problems we must reckon with, and we should be loath to make the same mistakes.

Over the past 200 years, foreign-sourced garden favorites like English ivy (Hedera helix), the sweetly scented Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), Chinese and Japanese wisterias (Wisteria chinensis and floribunda) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) have naturalized in North American fields and forests. Their vigor means they often outcompete native plants and trees, sometimes outright killing them. Yet garden centers continue to sell some of these plants as ornamental solutions. Who wants that? How old hat. It’s time to let native alternatives claim their space in the garden ecosystem.

Dutchman’s pipe

For covering large pergolas or verandas to create shade or privacy, look no further than Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla), also known as pipevine.

Hardy in USDA Zones 4 through 8, it hails from woods and streambanks of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Somewhat tropical-looking 6-to-12-inch, jade-green, heart-shaped leaves make the vigorous yet manageable woody vine suitable for screening. Small, pendulous, buff-brown pitcher-pot flowers can appear, though you may need to search for them hiding in the large foliage. Their shape inspires the vine’s common names.